Much-debated Waltham playground plan revised for now

Thursday

Apr 3, 2014 at 3:00 PM

By Eli Shermanesherman@wickedlocal.com

Due to conflicting opinions on what should be done with the three basketball courts at Peter Gilmore Playground, Mayor Jeannette McCarthy says they will not be removed, at least for now.In a March 18 letter to the Waltham Recreation Board, McCarthy wrote that she wouldn’t present a funding request to City Council for a Recreation Department project that didn’t have the neighborhood’s support.The letter was drafted after she held a meeting with a group of south side residents and futsal advocates who expressed disappointment over a pending decision to eliminate the three basketball courts in Gilmore Playground at the corner of High and Lowell streets. Futsal is a five-a-side version of soccer usually played on a basketball-sized hard floor court.McCarthy, in her letter, explained that the estimated costs for renovations to Gilmore Playground would "far exceed" the $950,000 she requested through Community Development Block Grant funds, so tearing out the basketball courts wouldn’t immediately be a part of the plan."The project will have to be phased, and I will only be submitting a request for demolition of the former South Branch Library building, clean up and seeding," McCarthy wrote. "This will allow the Ward 8 and 9 councilors to resolve any neighborhood issues before going forward with a plan to the Recreation Board and then the mayor and council."The South Branch Library, at 80 Hall St., is in the northwest corner of the park. Carlos Vidal, a former City Council candidate and futsal advocate, attended the March 26 Recreation Board meeting where McCarthy read her letter. For him, the decision to suspend removal of the courts was the right one."The fact that they’re delaying the process is good for the community as a whole," Vidal said Tuesday. "We need better public input. City officials and departments need to reach out to the community and not only to the people who live in the community, but also to the people who use the park."Three designs were originally presented for a remake of the park. Two included one basketball court and the third had none. During a Feb. 11 meeting, park neighbors complained about overuse, noise and sometimes crime produced by people at the courts. The design without courts was heavily supported, much to the chagrin of futsal and basketball advocates.Ward 9 Councilor Robert Logan, who represents the area of Gilmore Park, said he wanted the park redone, but he didn’t enter the process with any preconceived notion of preference. He did say, however, that the basketball courts brought on more than just hoops."I’d say they were being abused. ... There were fights and drinking and a lot of people using it that [were not] teenage kids," Logan said. "Some might have been playing basketball too, [but] there’s loud noise, arguing, fighting and unruly behavior."Logan added that he hoped a balance could be found between the wishes of the park’s neighbors and assuring adequate recreation resources are available for the south side.In a response to concerns raised by futsal supporters, a meeting was called on Feb. 24 to explore the possibility of setting up a futsal or multi-purpose court at the "Jack" Koutoujian Playground at 910 Moody St. The park, formerly a landfill, has a youth softball field, a play structure and a skate park in the front end. The larger back end of the park has a fair amount of open space, but would need to be capped and thoroughly tested for chemicals before any allowed construction.In her Community Development Block Grant budget recommendation to City Council, the mayor requested $50,000 for Koutoujian. She also asked councilors to declare both the former South Branch and North Branch libraries surplus. McCarthy wrote in an email Monday that the only plan for now is to tear down the South Branch Library."There is no decision on a plan, because as I indicated in my letter, there needs to be more meetings in each of the wards with the ward councilors to determine if the neighborhood plan for each of these wards can be agreed to," McCarthy wrote.It’s unclear what will become of the three Gilmore basketball courts, but for now they will stay."I think we took a step in the right direction," Vidal said. "We’ll regroup, go back to the drawing board and get people involved."